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Ganassi: Zanardi comeback may be more difficult than a lot of people think

September 13, 2012

Alex Zanardi, in his Ganassi CART ride in 1996, has been mulling over an IndyCar comeback. Photo by LAT PHOTOGRAPHIC

Chip Ganassi likes the idea of Alex Zanardi finally getting his chance to compete in the Indianapolis 500. But he doubts the magic could be the same.

“First of all, it goes without saying that that would be a huge, huge thing to happen here,” Ganassi said. “To have him there would be one thing; to have a paralympic gold medalist is another. But to have somebody with his personality and all those wrapped up in one would be a team's dream.

“We'll have to see; talk is cheap. Everybody's wound up about one conversation that Zanardi had with (Jimmy) Vasser and me and that's it. We've already talked about it more here today than was talked about on the phone. But it would be a dream come true to bring him back. It would be as big as it gets.”

Zanardi missed his chance at Indy due his 2001 accident in Germany where he lost both legs.

Ganassi said the story of a Zanardi comeback has been blown out of proportion.

“One conversation Zanardi and I had years ago was do you really go back? Is that the smart thing to do to go back and put something together and try to recreate,” he said. “When you try to go back and recreate magic, more people have not done it than have done it.

“There are lots of stories out there in sports trying to recreate magic that kind of turns into (pause) there are more stories of duds than there are heroes when it comes to trying to recreate something. That's what you have to be careful of.”